[Scalestein]

Genuinely curious - how would you go about getting the parts and building something like a Bottle head amp? I been eyeing them up for a while and think the appeal is that they package everything up nicely, like buying a Lego kit. I assumed there was a standard "audiophile mark up" which sounds like it might be higher than I thought!

[JKCalhoun]

Many parts can be had here: https://www.tubesandmore.com

Lot of projects/how-tos here: http://diyaudioprojects.com/Tubes/tubes.htm

Another DIY forum: https://www.diyaudio.com/community/forums/tubes-valves.5/

A "Darling" I built from scratch (I built over half a dozen in total): https://imgur.com/PBKOQMk

(Of all the tube amps I've built the Darling is still my favorite for the sound, simplicity. The tubes were cheap enough to find — used in the radios in WWII bombers, made obsolete by solid-state and military inventory was dumped on the market. Maybe 1-Watt in power though? You might be surprised how listenable that is through full-range drivers + powered sub.)

A Darling write-up that got me started https://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/~reese/Projects/DoubleDarlin...

[systems_glitch]

Excellent recommendations, I'll also add if you're not in a hurry Edcor makes excellent transformers (plate, filament, combo, output, interstage). Everything's custom made when you order it though.

Hammond Manufacturing makes a lot of applicable transformers for the mid-to-lower range of hifi and they're largely stock items.

See if you have local hamfests. Tons of tube stuff there.

Remember, it doesn't need to be an audio tube to pass audio! My most-used amplifier is built around a pair of 6T9 TV Compactron tubes (basically the IC of the tube world, multiple elements in a space saving package). The circuit came out of an old GE vacuum tube manual. As long as you don't tell the electrons (or audiophiles), they'll never know!

[JKCalhoun]

Edcor are made in the U.S., Hammond ... in Canada? Both excellent transformers - and probably the most expensive part of the build (the tubes I use go for much less than the iron).

[systems_glitch]

Yeah, that was always the hard/expensive part, building tube stuff as a kid! Most of the junk radios and TVs I scrapped for parts were AC/DC sets with no transformer.

[Scalestein]

This is really awesome, I think about to dive down a much deeper rabbit hole now. Thank you!

[jacquesm]

Gorgeous build!

[ilyt]

Audiophile/audiophoolery is certainly one mark up, but stuff made on that small scale generally needs huge markup just so the company making it turns a profit

But considering they sell magic power cords ( https://bottlehead.com/product/bottlehead-power-cord-kit/ ) it's probably well into audiophoolery spectrum.

[systems_glitch]

I redid a lot of their original "Foreplay" preamps for the aforementioned audio shop -- they were available as a kit option and a lot of guys butchered the assembly, apparently. Back then, the power transformer was the cheapest combo plate/filament transformer from Antique Electronic Supply, but spraypainted black. That particular transformer was being loaded at like twice its filament current rating! Little stuff like that really bothered me.

[LukeShu]

Using an illicitly acquired copy of the Crack 1 (not 1.1) manual, I quickly priced out the guts (I excluded the case, screws/nuts/washers, and wires) on tubesandmore.com + digikey.com at $184.

Assuming the basic Crack 1.1 is similar, at a price of $349, that's $165 / 90% markup for packaging up the kit for you, a nice case, and very detailed assembly instructions with lots of pictures and warnings about the dangerous parts and whatnot.

(And $96 of that $184 is for the Hammond 273AZ transformer, which I found a post saying is similar to Bottlehead's custom PT-3, but I'm not too sure about that, and I wasn't going to spend too much time figuring out the specs for the PT-3. Perhaps a better choice of transformer would significantly cut down that cost.)